Beth Schlegel and Brad Schlegel

00:02 This is a brad Schlegel, 70 years old. Today's date is Thursday, April 29th, 2021. I'm sitting in Rosedale, Maryland, and I'll be conversing with my sister bet.

00:21 And I am Beth Schlegel.

00:23 I'm 61 and will be 62 in just two days.

00:30 Is today is Thursday, April 29th, 2021. I am in York, Township between Dallastown and York, Pennsylvania, and I am the sister of Brad Schlegel.

00:49 Okay.

00:51 Well, I guess I'll I'll go first and the first question I had was it what it? What are your earliest, memories of growing up in Lansdale? And if you want to include memories of Dad and mother go ahead and mention those as well as well.

01:14 Yeah, earlier just memories. I mean that's kind of tough, but I

01:21 In the years, before I went to school, of course, I went with mother on lots of errands. So I remember going to the AMT shopping grocery shopping and then the laundromat was right next door. So sometimes we would take clothes to the laundromat and then go grocery shopping. And there was this one time when mother must have just needed to run into the store for something really quick and she left me in the car and and she left her purse in the car. And so of course being curious. I opened her purse.

02:03 In the process, I found this role of what I thought was breath mints, but turned out to be Tums text the process of getting those and eating those, I managed to, I don't know whether it was a gear shift or what, but all of a sudden the car started moving down the incline toward Broad Street. And all I remember, I remember not understanding so I must have been really young, not understanding what was happening, except mother running out of the store with this Panic. Look on your face and grabbing the car door and doing something in the car. Stop. To the street.

02:52 So that was one of my earliest memories and of course, also going to the clinic up, the street for the annual, flu shot and doctor's appointments and what not. And I'll learning to ice skate at Martin Century Farms, now Lehigh Valley, dairies on the pond there, and learning about the birds and bees from the cows.

03:23 Yes.

03:28 So so I also remember making homemade ice cream at home and going to the dairy to get the chipped ice of the shaved ice with Dad. We would take that big canvas that you. And I often used to gather up leaves in the fall and back field, by the way.

04:01 Well, anyway, we would get the ice in that and then we would make a homemade ice cream. And you always make a big deal out of being stronger and you know, with if we thought that it was done, you could you could turn it just a little longer. Right? Right. Yes, make it good and sick. I remember you decided to increase the amount of heavy cream in the old family recipe and and wild. While it's certainly did make it richer. It also made it a little too rich in some ways. But anyway, that was your experiment one year. I remember

04:54 That's that's very interesting. And yeah, I still have that green bag, which actually came from the Ice House, up the street where Dad used to take me to be stored in their freezer because at that time we didn't we didn't have a freezer and the that storage place would keep. I don't know if it's always frozen but they would store Meats for people and I don't know. I don't know if the building still there or not, but you could also think it is there as well. But yeah, that story about the AMC that. I don't think I ever heard of it.

05:37 Well, my my recollection of something involving a car was when dad tries across the railroad tracks up at Broad Street and the gate came down on top of the roof of the car. And if you remember, they had like a metal Spike that held the gate off the ground and of course, I hit the top of the car. Didn't go through it, but they had to in order for him to to to either go backwards or forwards. I can't remember which way he went to the train was coming and the berry weight the back. Then there's Gates the rapper a manually. So the attendant had to raise the gate so that Dad could extract himself and I that must have been in the in the late 50s or maybe mid-50s before you came into existence.

06:36 See driving. I'm going to say. I think it was maybe the Nash Rambler.

06:43 Which we had several over the years.

06:46 No, I don't remember mother bought a Mercedes and it was a red Mercedes.

06:55 I think it was a stick shift.

07:00 Yes, Sadie's with a black.

07:06 What is an we had?

07:08 For all of like 6 weeks I think was a little longer but I think they got frustrated because parts are so expensive and I don't know if I was the cause or not. But I remember we had to replace a headlight and the cost of that headlight was excessive and you could buy an off-brand they had to get a Mercedes-Benz brand but the car

07:37 Yeah, I think there was some disagreement between her and dad about the purchase of that car should be good. Now, I do remember that Dad was very much. He loved American Motors products. So we had that ran more sedan, which also had a shelf in the back. Behind the back seat were young, Brad could sleep during trips.

08:09 Now would be highly illegal, but then they moved up to a station wagon and it one time I think we had a Ford station wagon, which we took the Florida and I think was 1957 and that was the time that they came and picked me up at upper Gwynedd Elementary. I was in third grade, they got permission for me to get out of school and we proceeded South.

08:38 And we stopped at what was Julian, Hagen Julian Louise, Hagen, North Carolina, and we stop there for the night.

08:50 And the four of them, you know, Mom and Dad and the two parents went somewhere that evening without the kids. And they said they were going to a church meeting. They went to a hockey game.

09:08 Which I didn't find out till you're slick. But but yeah, that was a fun trip. And I remember Mom had made curtains for the inside of the car, so that the nights that we didn't stay in a motel, we can sleep in the car. And one time we stopped at the gas station and asked if we could spend the night there, and the guy said, yeah, you can, but be aware as such. There was a murder here, a couple nights ago.

09:39 We will stay there anyway, but that was such a wonderful trip because we, we went down to Florida and we drove through the whole state and out. Of course, the first time I'd ever been to Florida and I matter of fact, just yesterday. I found a folder in my family archives of all the brochures for trip and I don't know. Have you ever been to st. Augustine now? I haven't. Well, I've been there several times since but back in the fifties, you know, they had a lot of these exotic exhibits like the alligator farm and course the oldest house and so forth, but I still remember climbing up on the walls of the Old Fort which the Spanish built in the 1500.

10:30 And they use those this material called Coquina, which is made out of shells. Anyway, I still remember that and then I remember going out to eat one time and I didn't know what finger bowls were, but I perceive I proceeded to take a drink out of the finger bowls.

10:50 Go ahead lemon in it. I mean, it looks like something drinkable, but that was a great trip and course back. Then we had to use Route 1 and 301 and there was no interstate.

11:07 So yeah, we we had a real Adventure so I don't know what I remember. We we took a trip down to Blue Ridge Parkway in the trailer. And I member Dad pulled through the toll booth and knocked off the vent. But I think that was the first trip that you went on with us. Do you remember that?

11:31 Memories, I think we visited Luray Caverns and Dad. Carried me on his shoulders when we went into the caverns and there were places where I bumped my head on the on the cave wall.

11:51 Beyond that I don't have too many memories of that trip. The one, I remember the most was the trip West where, where my space was the way back of the station wagon, in your space, was the backseat yet. I'm not sure we would have survived today's restrictions with car. Remember we we dug up the slides for that trip, most of which I took and we showed them to mother before she passed away and we had some good laughs about some of those pictures cleaning the blood work. The people ahead of us were feeding a bear and a mama bear was sitting outside the record.

12:49 And I, I remember her of feeding them, the borough's crackers. I think they were bugle crackers and the darn Butte, you know, you'll try to stick its head in the car. But yeah, we had some great great pictures from that trip.

13:11 But the other one I remember, is when we went to Vermont with with Aunt Betsy.

13:18 And we're for my time. You're on a trip.

13:22 Yes, I believe you were. You were pretty young. But yeah, and

13:28 Remember Betsy was Betsy all the three of us were in the back seat.

13:34 And then I used to tickle you and you enjoyed that.

13:41 You might have thought.

13:46 Sometimes be a merciless tease. No, not me. But remember one at one of our jobs. I don't know if you did it, but we had to rub dad's shoulders to keep him awake while driving.

14:04 I do remember that. Yep. And for some reason he did most of the driving. I don't know any mother could drive, but I think he did most of the driving.

14:17 She did most of the driving.

14:21 And I think some of that had to do with the fact that he was he was not very talkative and she likes to be able to talk and she liked to keep track of everything. So you remember her detailed logs. Oh, yes. Unfortunately she threw a lot of those away when they moved from Broad Street up to Telford.

14:49 Yeah, we have some of them.

14:55 But yeah, she said she was a copious note taker.

15:00 And they love to meet people in the campground and try to stay in touch with them.

15:10 Which is always a challenge because that was before email.

15:14 Yeah, so she would write down their name address and phone number. And

15:21 I guess sometimes they did get together.

15:24 Now, speaking of camping. What do you remember about Green Lane? Oh my goodness. So many things. He riding in the same lines trucks come in every year, There Was the Same Gang of people. There are whole clan and the tolls and the Freed's and and all of them and partner.

15:54 So, you know the same lines riding in the truck. Capture the flag that ice cream that we would. Shane lines we go up to redhill and get ice cream. Bring it back and write Sunday. School, Sunday. School, old gospel, hymns.

16:20 I remember when we would swim in the lake, there was there was the Sandy part but before the days when they would rope off swimming areas, you could actually swim all the way across to that other little island place that other. And I remember, right? I was too young. I think I didn't, I didn't do that very often, but you would swim out and there was this mud, this Rich loam out there and you would bring that back.

17:01 Repeat that two to the Enterprise of whoever was being buried that day in the sand. Sometimes it was me. Sometimes it was Dad, you know? Yeah, but so we used to rent canoes also and and paddle around the lake.

17:24 I don't remember that. Yeah, now I don't know if those were fully rented them or whether it was somebody from the campground that I own a canoe. But in order to get to the far side of the lake, that was really the only way you could do it. I I don't remember swimming all the way across, but the older boys. As I recall, I don't remember.

17:56 That that's swimming contest for capture the flag that I was, that was always a lot of fun and I used to enjoy stoking the fire. Now, they they gave us firewood either on a daily basis or at least every couple days and I made it a habit to keep the fire burning sometimes for the entire two weeks will seem like that and you're my technique was to really get a roaring fire maybe in the evening and then Bank the coals. So the next morning with a little bit of help from some newspaper, I could start it up again and I think mother mother did some cooking on that but at least but the one thing she did was some heated water for washing dishes and we had that old that old metal bucket that was encrusted with such as always.

18:57 Stayed on the grave.

18:59 Mason about that, but now that you bring it to mind. Yeah. She may have had a coffee pot as well. I don't know, I can't remember, but, I mean the Great's weren't that Ward's, but you can definitely have a bucket on there. And then I think we also from time to time would make and what are they call those? You take two pieces of bread and put jelly in between mountains. Highest mountain pies.

19:27 I have those makers. Yeah, I think I may have a set as well. But those were, those were tasty.

19:36 You just had to be careful that you didn't burn this well, and yeah, and the filling was hot, too. I remember.

19:46 But I mean, can't camping with with mom and dad was in this was before your time. But one of the first long camping trips that I remember, was wondering when to Acadia National Park course, we stopped other places and back, then the only tent they had was an old army Walton, which required a ridgepole and other poles and they put that in all the camping equipment in this trailer that they hold him behind the car. This is before we had a camping trailer, right? And that trailer was built on the chassis of like a 1920s car. Some sort. I want to say a Buick maybe and it has really big wheels.

20:41 Well, Dad, I don't think he had a spare tire. But at one point on that Creek, we had a flat.

20:50 And we spent better part of a day hunting around for a tire for that trailer, which he found it. Some gas station up in Maine and I think he bought an extra one because that extra tire was down in the basement at Broad Street for years and then the trailer itself eventually turned into a manure trailer. Could we take it back to the ebersole's to pick up? Horse manure to bring back the spread on the truck patch now, I don't remember what happened to the tricks. I can't wait for you to for camping again. I don't remember that trailer. Although I remember seeing pictures of it photographs. Oh, yeah. I remember it ever being on the property when I was growing up. Okay, but when you mentioned may I have to tell

21:50 Is this memory? This was them?

21:54 This was also a trip to to Acadia. But it was I was probably in the middle school at the time and we were we were driving along the coast in this one of those little towns like, you know, Snug Harbor Cove City, where where there was, there was this town and this street was going through the town and on on one side of the street, kind of below street level, where the resident, and on the other side of the street, was this embankment covered with blueberries, right? Blueberries, and Dad loved blueberries.

22:49 I think blueberries were his favorite fruit. Anyway when he saw those blueberries.

22:57 He insisted that we stopped. So we we we pulled over and we saw I don't I think we saw one of the houses may have had a sign that said bakery or I don't know but we went to one of the houses right across the street from all these blueberries and and Dad knocked on the door. Explain told the story of how we were, you know, from Pennsylvania. And we were on vacation. And he had a whole story and how, you know, blueberries blue-berries word. We're just amazing. And would it be possible for this woman for this homeowner?

23:42 To bake a pie. If if we picked the berries, would she baked us a pie?

23:53 She said, yes, and and so we spent some time gathering enough blueberries that she made us a big. I mean, it was a good 12-inch pie in a metal Titan and and we waited we I forget if we like maybe we took a walk around the town. I don't remember exactly. But we came back and and got our pie and well, let's say I'm not the biggest or at least then I wasn't the biggest blueberry fan, but that was the most fantastic blueberry pie. And of course that, you know, I didn't have cornstarch to it was, it was fruit Sochi. So, she was a professional Baker.

24:48 I'd I don't know for sure.

24:56 There is another story for muffin Benton. Where where Dad.

25:04 Talk this way into a v.

25:08 But now that trip to Maine, I don't think I was on that trip, know, I think this was after you had already left for college or whatever, but they, but they took the trailer to go up there. Yes. Well, well, speaking of Dad, no wish to go to promiseland Lake. Quite a bit. Yes, camping. Well, one one evening. We are, we are out driving. And somehow I remember they were blueberries involved with this excursion as well. But we went by a garbage pie garbage area where people would dump their garbage and that was very common back in those days. Anyway, there was a skunk that was roaming around the garbage area and unfortunately had a bottle on its nose.

26:08 So here you have a skunk that is incapacitated because the bottle on its nose. So Dad, feeling, sorry for the proceeded to throw rocks, at the skunk in the hopes of breaking the bottle.

26:27 Now, I can't remember if you succeeded but that, yeah, that was quite an adventure and I don't think that the skunk sprayed him. But just just to watch him. Try to get this bottle of the skunk was Adventure enough and it wasn't, it was getting dark but I don't know how he managed to take game. But I do remember that. I don't remember that. Okay? For your your time, but remember the skunk's that took up residence underneath your bedroom at home though. He's my bedroom. There. There was a family that took up residence under the porch far enough back that when they had their litter and and sprayed.

27:27 It reached your bedroom and all of our coats that were hanging in the closet. And that was, that was a mess. Well, to remove remove the offending animals and he did, he do it himself.

27:55 Well positive you. Remember you remember the most common method of dealing with varmints right involving either the shotgun a trap or the 22 rifle?

28:12 Yes, I also remember you and I trapping a groundhog in that in that pipe. At the end of the driveway, toward the ever solved Lane. Yes. I think I was at one end with a shovel and you were at the

28:29 A BB gun, okay.

28:32 Well, now, I don't know if it's the same groundhog. But I do remember killing a groundhog in that same area and I proceeded to take the skin off and cured it in the workshop Raj and when it was fully cured. I stuffed it with newspaper. No, no.

29:10 I don't remember what happened to the skin, but I was really proud of myself at my ability to. I preserve said the groundhog skin. Now you remember, when I was in Boy Scouts, we would trap Chipmunks. Epic Rustica Falls. We would drop a rock up with a with a, with a stick and a string. And we put peanut butter on the rock or two rocks. The one on top and on the bottom and we wait for a chipmunk to come in and nibble on the peanut butter with pull the string, and the Chipmunks would be killed, and then we proceeded to skin the Chipmunk.

30:04 And ask her preserving it. We would make neckerchew slides out of the Chipmunks.

30:11 And I remember Glenn Webber and I were the most proficient at this and I think somewhere, I may still have a chipmunk neckerchiefs. Like, oh my goodness. I know but

30:28 Anyway, you only got to say about sucks. I remember when we were at Elk Neck State Park, one time and

30:37 A family of skunks took residence outside the trailer. I don't know if they got into our food Provisions, but we were kind of Trapped in the trailer until they left.

30:50 Now, one of the things I wanted to ask you about was Brent. What are your memories of Brent?

30:58 Brent's are was our younger brother who passed away in 1962, I think.

31:06 Well.

31:08 I do remember, occasionally visiting him at Selinsgrove.

31:16 But mostly, I just remember, I have a vivid memory of seeing him in his casket.

31:24 And of giving him my treasured panda, in his casket stuffed panda to be buried with him. And I think in some ways.

31:41 That's how I learned Greece.

31:45 More from the relationship with my panda than with with Brent because I didn't know him very well. But I remember, you know, every time the bus would go past the cemetery, I would start to tear up.

32:03 Is he buried with Mom and Dad down at Greenlawn? Yes, okay.

32:13 Yeah, white course, I was four years old when he was born, and I remember, I was actually at the old Sunday school building for Trinity down on Broad Street or Main Street and

32:33 I actually have a vivid memory of being on the stairwell coming up from the the basement. When I found out that he had been born, and course. We were fairly early on that, he was

32:50 Mentally challenged, you know, I guess back then they would say retarded. It was always a mystery as to what was the cause because

33:01 Mother insists that when he was born in, for the first six months, that he could see. And remember, he had beautiful blue eyes, which were inherited from our grandfather Schlegel cuz he had blue eyes.

33:18 And,

33:20 He he caught chickenpox when he was like, 6 months old the same times. I had it. So there were times when I thought maybe I was responsible for his condition, even though that was never proven, but after that, we discovered that he had these issues. I remember they took him back to Children's Hospital in Philadelphia for diagnosis and then eventually to Good Shepherd home in Allentown because mother mother couldn't really take care of him and run the household at the same time cuz he required a lot of care.

34:02 But Good Shepherd, really could not do anything for him. I remember there's pictures of him sitting at a table, trying to eat. And of course, he didn't have the capacity to do that. And I don't think he ever progressed Beyond like five or six months and then only age, even though he lived until he was 12. But yeah, we used to go visit him up at Selinsgrove and we would pick him up and we would

34:37 You know, he would ride in the car with us. Now. He couldn't talk or anyting but mother really care for him as well as she could.

34:49 And often we were camping in that vicinity when we went down to pick him up, so we would obviously take him back to the campground.

35:01 And them. Yeah, I remember.

35:05 I remember visiting him up there and that's when I discovered chocolate. Marshmallow, peanut Sundays. They used to call him CM piece. I don't know why we used to buy those somewhere in that area, but I think,

35:22 Chocolate marshmallow, peanut. Yes.

35:26 I was never a big fan of the peanuts. I was supposed to get wet walnuts, but

35:32 Was kind of ironic because you went to school at the in Selinsgrove at Susquehanna and Sue and I vacation up at the farm which is only about 20 minutes away from Selinsgrove. And I've been by actually I went by the the building where he used to live, which is still there. If not, it's not a state hospital anymore. But, you know, just kind of ironic that we maintain that connection, but we only have like four minutes left. Are there anything that you wanted to ask me about that? We haven't talked about.

36:15 I know you asked me about, how do I come to work for the IRS?

36:22 I am I took a civil service exam and that was the first agency that offered me a job and that was in 1974.

36:34 And after a few years in that position as a clerk, I went back and took accounting courses and became eligible to become a

36:47 A revenue agent and the first opportunity that I wanted was in Richmond, Virginia. So I moved the Richmond and then eventually came to Baltimore and I work for IRS for almost 40 years that a variety of jobs and always enjoyed my work. Cuz I felt like I was helping people. I wasn't trying to extract tax money from them. I was trying to preserve their retirement funds.

37:19 How did the sixties, you know, with the Civil Rights events and the Vietnam War? How did how did those years, affect your life decisions or your life then?

37:34 You know, growing up with Mom and Dad. I I think I was kind of sheltered from from the world in a lot of ways because they, they were not very political. They weren't, you know, involved in the peace movement or anything like that and Lansdale being the town that it was didn't have a lot of things going, on course, when I went to college in Delaware. They had just

38:01 They had riots in Wilmington.

38:05 Wish I was around the Martin Luther King. Yes, but

38:09 Yeah, so there was some student activism going on there. I did get

38:16 I joined the National Guard in 1970, which was pretty much the height of the Vietnam War and I did that to avoid going to Vietnam.

38:25 Even though it turned out that I never would have gone because my draft number was so high, but I did get involved in the protest movement and went down to a DC from one of the big rallies. And I remember, I wasn't personally tear gas, but I could smell it. Remember.

38:50 City buses being parked back to back around the White House and watching some of the protesters Rock a bus until it turns over. But yeah, but then, you know, being being in the National Guard, my ability to protest was was kind of limited and

39:14 I never I never really, it's only been lately that I've really started to appreciate the music from those errors. And so I often listen to 60s music when I'm in the car with Susan, but she she likes it. So but

39:34 Anyway, so do you want to talk real briefly about your ministry experience because

39:40 That was one of the questions I had to wear almost at a time. I think, aren't we? It's something that I, you know, we're having grown up in a family that was very devout and very active when I was encouraged and given opportunities to pursue Ministry. I mean, I considered it in discerned that vocation pretty early on when I was still in high school, but I took German in college because the bishop at that time said that they may not have enough Church jobs for seminarians and to have another fallback career. So being good, good Luther. And I took German and but, you know, serving and Ministry was never an issue. While your first congregation was german-speaking.

40:40 That was an opportunity and you still used your language, which I've always admired that your ability in German.

40:53 Fluent, I like languages and

40:57 You know, being in Ministry allowed me a lot of flexibility, especially as a single parent raising David, so, I was thankful for that.

41:08 Well, it's still you know, pays off and you've had several nice trips to Germany as part of your education as well as for organizing this conversation today. We had some questions, but we'll try and I learned quite a bit. So are we able to get a recording of this summer?